When you are in charge of an association, you quickly realize that your members are the most important aspect of your organization. Anything you can do to keep them more involved and interested is likely to be well worth it. One option that is seeing an enormous increase in popularity is association software/creating an online community. YourMembership.com can help you institute a feature-rich site that will provide your members with added value and make them feel more connected to you, your organization and their fellow members.
Association software provides an online community experience for your members. Here they can reach out to you as well as one another for social networking, educational materials, mentoring opportunities, industry information, career opportunities and much more. Our association management software allows for live chat and uploading/creating of member profiles. You have unlimited pages on your site with which to post information. You can lock down pages and make them accessible to only one or some of your groups. The administrative control is up to you.
You can also use association software for informal communication to your members through features like blogs. This can help keep your members informed of important events that are coming up or changes that you’re making in your organization. Post informative articles letting them know about the latest association news or trends in the market. Having this information in an easily accessible place can help your members stay better informed about the goings on within your association and the industry, in general.
You are able to use association management software for educational purposes as well. If your association offers seminars, conferences or training tools, you can use association management software to help allow them to better access these resources. Upload PDFs, MP3s, JPEGs even PowerPoint Presentations. And with our online store feature, you can decide whether your members can access these items free of charge or pay for them. Our system allows you to bill later (the old-fashioned way) or create a seamless credit card ordering experience. You can also easily set member-level-specific pricing on store items.
This software also makes dues and donations collections easier. It allows members to pay online, and you can send bulk email reminders that it is dues paying time. The system can be set up to collect monthly or yearly (and everything in between – whatever your admin arranges).
Want to know how you’re doing? Does your membership enjoy its new community? Why not ask them in an online survey? It’s infinitely easier than the old way of sending out a request and wondering how many would actually send it back to you. Now it’s virtual. Results can be tallied instantaneously and can be exported as well. You may also choose to show results to all participants or keep the results private for you and your community administrators.
Finally, if your association hosts events or conferences, YourMembership.com’s association management software can make this process simpler. Members can access an events calendar and register online. You can even upload maps and make dinner selections for the event (if applicable). Association software keeps you connected (and organized) to the lifeblood of your group – your members. You know how important they are; now you can show them too.
